We're not in a hurry to add public API's for Card Emulation. It is a developers nightmare because most NFC hardware will only support one type of card emulation technology. And there are at least 4 very common types (Felica, Mifare Classic, Mifare Desire, ISO-DEP). So a developer would need to understand all these types and the inter-operability issues, and choose which set of phones to write their application for.
Not to mention dealing with multiple apps that all want to do card emulation. Take Mifare as an example, how would the user decide which application gets to control the Mifare Application Directory? Yes it is possible to construct a combination of API's and system UI that lets the user choose which application gets to do card emulation. But we have to introduce API complexity and, cognitive overhead for the user. As a third party developer, I highly encourage you to invest in peer-to-peer NFC. This can easily handle multiple applications, and is guaranteed to work across all Android phones. Cheers, Nick On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 1:36 PM, nadam <a...@anyro.se> wrote: > It would be nice to get a hint on when card emulation will be added as > an official feature of the SDK. It's already mentioned in the source > code (NfcAdapter.java) but hidden with @hide. > > /** > * Card Emulation mode Enables the manager to act as an NFC tag. > Provided > * that a Secure Element (an UICC for instance) is connected to > the NFC > * controller through its SWP interface, it can be exposed to the > outside > * NFC world and be addressed by external readers the same way > they would > * with a tag. > * <p> > * Which Secure Element is exposed is implementation-dependent. > * > * @hide > */ > private static final int DISCOVERY_MODE_CARD_EMULATION = 2; > > It seems to be possible to enable this somehow (http://www.youtube.com/ > watch?v=28TwCpx4Dng) but I don't know if it requires Java reflection, > NDK programming or a custom Android build. > > On 31 mar, 04:39, Dianne Hackborn <hack...@android.com> wrote: > > The platform so far supports what is in the SDK. It doesn't matter what > a > > particular piece of hardware supports. > > > > It is enough to be "useful in practice." It may not be enough for what > > *you* want to do, and we understand that it does not do everything for > > everyone at this point, but this is what is there so far. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 3:03 AM, JMC114 <jorncruij...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Greetings, > > > > > After sifting through documentation and building NFC test applications > > > on a Nexus S, I've come to the conclusion the Android SDK still lacks > > > the functionality that NFC applications truly need in order to really > > > be useful in practice. > > > > > What's possible now: > > > - Reading and writing tags. > > > - P2P NDEF communication. > > > > > What's missing: > > > - Card emulation > > > - P2P NDEF support on terminals/readers (which I'm given to understand > > > is known as com.android.npp? NDEF Push Protocol. Can't find any > > > documentation on that anywhere..) which - I believe - is (still) > > > needed for P2P communication with regular desktop readers > > > > > As far as I can tell, the NFC controller chip (PN544 > > >http://www.nxp.com/acrobat_download2/literature/9397/75016890.pdf) in > > > the Nexus S supports all NFC functionality, the android SDK does not. > > > > > Card emulation or proper documentation on how to initiate P2P > > > communication with a regular (desktop) (nfc) reader is very much a > > > requirement to unleash NFC's true potential, which is mobile payment. > > > > > It seems impossibly hard to find any information on whether or not > > > this - in my opinion vital - functionality is due to be implemented. > > > > > Does anyone have any information, thoughts, opinions, anything on this > > > subject? I'm really wondering what to expect from Android and NFC, > > > because frankly, I'm only half impressed so far. > > > > > Thanks > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > > Groups "Android Developers" group. > > > To post to this group, send email to > android-developers@googlegroups.com > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > > For more options, visit this group at > > >http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > > > > -- > > Dianne Hackborn > > Android framework engineer > > hack...@android.com > > > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to > > provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails. All such > > questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see > and > > answer them. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
